Posts Tagged ‘classes’

This question has come to me either through email, PM, Facebook or on the forum so I thought it was time for a quick post.

How do I train in Hedgewitchery? How does one learn Hedgewitchery?

As Hedgewitchery is such a personal Path it is hard to tell someone how to find formal training. After all everyone is going to practice somewhat differently.

First, you might be lucky enough to find a teacher or another Hedgewitch to train and/or practice with. Of course we are all, always, students. For example I can only teach what I know, share what I have experienced and explain the mistakes I have made. My personal tailoring of Hedgewitchery may not be exactly what you are looking for either, just as if I met another Hedgewitch who has more experienced than I, there might be much of her Path that does not resonate with me. Some Hedgewitches are more interested in herbalism and botany, while I am more interested in animal healing and animal husbandry than others. Quite the conundrum eh?

This is one reason why I set up the website and forum, so folks can share what they have learned, what they are experimenting with, as well as what they are hoping to learn. So we can all help each other along the way. You can join the forum (The Wild Geek Hang) at my website and there are a few yahoo groups and such kicking around as well.

Well of course if you are lucky enough to meet another Hedgewitch or someone who follows a similar Path then you can learn a great deal from each other.

There are books than you can read. Some are better than others of course. Some may be more or less along the lines of what you are looking for. There are some great recommended reading lists on the Hedge that myself and others have posted, go to the “A Witch’s Studies” section and then into the “Reading Lists and Recommendations” category.

You don’t have to go to another Hedgewitch to study hedgewitchery. This may sound a little odd but hear me out. Hedgewitchery is a jack-of-many-trades Path, the main ones being: Some type of shamanism or seership, some form of healing, working with Nature in some way and folk magick. So decide which types of these subjects interest you and study them. For example you could take shamanism workshops or study under a seer or sied worker. You could take a course on herbalism or reiki; I am going back to school to study to be a Vet Tech (not only as a career path but also as part of my hedgewitchery).

It also doesn’t hurt to study other forms of Witchcraft and Paganism. You can learn a lot from a Wicca 101 course, or taking a course through a Druid organization. Many Hedgewitches study the Feri Tradition, Faery Seership or heathen traditions such as Asatru.

Don’t forget to read/study up on wise woman, cunning folk, conjure practitioners and folk healers throughout history. Also mythology and any other subjects that interest you and you wish to incorporate into your Path.

How else it this Path learned? From your spirits of course. One place all Walkers Between Worlds gain knowledge from are the gods, ancestors and other spiritual helpers and guides they meet along the way and build a relationship with.

I’ve been enjoying my foray into the Pagan/Heathen/Witchy/Occult/Whatever Podcasting Community.

Everyone is very nice and helps each other out. Good job folks! *pats backs*

I adore podcasts, they are much better than watching Oprah for sure! hehehe

Here’s a few of my favorites:

The Wigglian Way

Ravencast

New World Witchery

The Magical Earth

Media Astra Ac Terra

The Infinite and the Beyond

Peter’s Crooked Path

Elemental Castings

Druidcast

Hedge Folk Tales

Celtic Myth Podshow

SpiritsCast

Whew, that’s plenty for one blog post. Now go turn off Dr. Phil and start downloading!

I am teaching a class for mysticwicks at their Circle of Teaching

it starts up Jan 11th, register with the CoT and message me to enroll!

Cottage Craft & Wild Witcheries is for anyone looking to integrate their spiritual and magickal practice with their daily lives, from the kitchen to the garden, from the family room to the wilderness. A magickal practice does not cease once you pass through your front door, whether you are heading inside or out, as such this class will bring the magickal into the mundane and teach you how to carry it with you wherever you go, be that in your home, a vacant lot in the heart of the city, or at a nature reserve.
Our goal is to explore creating both a Home-based and Nature-based practice of Witchcraft, the class will not be specific to any one Tradition (Wicca, Heathen etc) but provide a framework that you can use to create a workable practice of your own or build around any Tradition that you already practice.
This class will be accessible for those new to Witchcraft but will also provide a challenge for anyone looking to move beyond Paganism 101. It is written with the assumption that you have read at least one Paganism 101 book in the past, however.

Everyone is welcome to attend. I hear tell that there is some kind of spilt or division within the Calgary commmunity. I would like to make clear that I do not give a shit. All Calgary and area Pagans, Witches, and etc are totally welcome to come hang out and have fun and talk Craft. Brendan and I do not belong to any special groups or organizations (not my OBOD Bardic Grade) and have no interest in choosing sides. We just want to meet you and share a drink    maybe we can encourage some mending within the community or at least civility.

Info:

A world-traveled Druid and a down-home Hedgewitch are touring central Canada, and are looking to meet feollow Pagans & Witches!

Dr. Brendan Myers, Ph.D. is an award-winning Canadian philosopher, writer, and public speaker. He is the author of several well-respected books on ethics, environmentalism, mythology, and Celtic spirituality. His titles include “The Other Side of Virtue”, “A Pagan Testament”, “The Mysteries of Druidry”, and “Loneliness and Revelation” (forthcoming in 2010).

Juniper Cox is a practitioner of traditional hedge-craft, and the web-master of the popular Walking the Hedge website, blog and forum. And also has experince in wildcrafting, homesteading, and simple living as well as work in animal rescue.

The idea is to just hang out in a pub, talk to people about philosophy and spirituality, and sell a few copies of Brendan’s books to raise money for our travel expenses. No formal lecture, no schedule, no stress. After all, if Socrates could do philosophy at dinner parties and public marketplaces, why can’t we?

Let’s meet at Tipperary’s Pub, 2002 16th Avenue NW, at or around 6pm, on Tuesday, 3rd November.

About Brendan:

http://wildideas.net/cathbad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Myers

About Juniper:

http://walkingthehedge.net

A world-traveled Druid and a down-home Hedgewitch are touring central Canada, and are looking to meet feollow Pagans & Witches!

Dr. Brendan Myers, Ph.D. is an award-winning Canadian philosopher, writer, and public speaker. He is the author of several well-respected books on ethics, environmentalism, mythology, and Celtic spirituality. His titles include “The Other Side of Virtue”, “A Pagan Testament”, “The Mysteries of Druidry”, and “Loneliness and Revelation” (forthcoming in 2010).

Juniper Cox is an experienced practitioner of traditional hedge-craft, and the web-master of the popular Walking the Hedge website, blog and forum.

If you would like us to visit your shop, coven, grove, or circle, we are available for workshops, lectures, book-signings, and impromptu concerts! (or just hanging out)

Our tour schedule includes:

November 2: Calgary Alberta

November 4: Regina, Sask.

November 5: Winnipeg, Man.

November 7: Thunder Bay, Ont.

November 8: Sault St. Marie, Ont.

November 9: Sudbury, Ont.

November 10: Ottawa, Ont.

Please contact Brendan at bmyers33@live.ca, Juniper at juniper138@gmail.com,

Find out more about Brendan

Find Juniper on the web

If you know of someone in your area who would be willing to put us up for a night (two adults and one friendly elderly dog), please let us know as well. Many thanks!

Hearth Craft

“An rud a nitear sa chuil, thig e dh’ionnsaigh an teine” ~ What’s done in the corner will come to the hearth.

“No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like the kitchen best” ~ A decorative plate that once hung in my Great Grandmother’s kitchen.

In these modern times, in Western society especially, the home of today is centered on the television. The furniture is placed strategically around it; the couch or sofa faces it and the faces of the family are also turned towards it. Often our most prized family photos, trophies, mementos and the like rest on or near it. Surely if archaeologists one day dig up the bones of our civilization, they will think the television was our God.

But before primetime TV and soaps operas took over our lives, before Nintendo and Xbox, the household and everyone in it would gather around the family stove, and before that, the hearth. The hearth was such in integral part of European (and Colonial) culture that there was no separating hearth and home, fireside and family. In fact, the word for “hearth” in Latin is “focus”.

Hearthcraft is working with the magick and spirit of hearth, home, kith and kin. In Hearthcraft the entire house and the land it sits on is sacred space, the home the family’s temple, centered on the hearth. Be that hearth a fireplace, a woodstove or modern electric range. In Hearthcraft, the home is hallowed.

Even cleaning can become a ritual. In fact, life is made up of a series of little routines we go about day by day; hearthcraft is the practise of recognizing the magick in every day routines and traditions. There are many spells involving the use of a mop or broom. Many “cleansings” that Pagan practitioners do, involve literally cleaning the space before doing the spiritual cleansing.

The hearth plays an important part in folklore and the traditions of the family home. A large part of most holidays and festivals throughout history is feasting, as well as lighting the hearth.

Hearthcraft is grounded in commonsense and practicality; it is using what is available to you. A healing spell is a bowl of chicken soup; a purification ritual is sweeping the floor; a ritual to honor the gods is cleaning the fireplace.

Hearthcraft is finding the sacred, the spiritual and the magickal in everyday things. It is bringing that “special something” into a house that makes it a home.